


Jily Week

by psc07



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Jily Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-09-20 13:38:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17023617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psc07/pseuds/psc07
Summary: A very, very old JilyWeek I found on Tumblr and decided to do/post it





	1. Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day One: Our friends have locked us on this closet and won't let us out until we kiss and make up

****

James could feel Lily's presence and hear her huffs of impatience. He definitely could _not_ see her, which annoyed him. Seeing Lily angry was one of his favourite views (even if it meant about 4 hours of shouts and possibly a few punches on his arms).

"Just tell your mates to let us out, Potter!" Lily ordered.

"Have you noticed that every time you're angry with me you go back to 'Potter'?" James replied instead.

"It's much better to scream 'Potter'."

"I'd rather hear you scream 'James', love." He said cheekily, with a huge smirk on his lips.

Lily could not see James either. She could smell his perfume (exactly the one that sometimes made her go crazy) and feel the heat emanating from where he stood at mere 30cm away.

That didn't mean she didn't know just exactly how he had smirked at the mention of her screaming his name.

Which was a perfect explanation to her banging her head on the closet's wall.

"Just get us out of here, please." She pleaded in a quieter tone.

"Can't do it. Mary and Padfoot knew what they were doing. Already tried to open the door. No deal." James said, shrugging. She sighed.

"Why in the bleeding hell would they do this?" She asked, the anger back.

"I may have mentioned to Sirius that we fought yesterday." James replied quietly, and all the awkwardness from the previous day returned.

"Mary found it weird me sleeping at the dorm on a Sunday." Lily added, realising the reason behind their friends' actions.

James winced. It had been a really stupid fight, just like most of the others. Both of them being their jealous selves.

"I honestly have no idea why you need to be so close to her in tutoring, James." Lily had said crossing her arms, "A bit closer and she'll be sitting on your lap."

"Like you and Mathews aren't like this!" He had snorted, throwing his hands up in frustration. " _Oh, Andy, you're holding the wand wrongly! How in Merlin's name a sixth year can't properly hold his wand?! Let me show you!"_ James said, in a girly voice. "I'll tell you how: he bloody knows, he just wants you to touch him!" Lily's face had flushed.

"First of all, Potter, that's not how I sound! Secondly, Andy's got some issues, alright? He isn't good with positioning his wand, but apparently you can't _think,_ so I guess he's better than you!"

"If he's so much better than me, why don't you go for him, then?" James challenged.

"Well, maybe I will!"

"Fine by me!"

Lily had stormed from his dorm and he had done the same, a couple of seconds after kicking his bed.

Later that night Lily entered the Room of Requirement, where they usually spent the weekend's nights, to grab her forgotten Mickey Mouse stuffed toy.

She hadn't expected to find James on the bed looking at her Mickey Mouse as if it held all the answers in the world.

"I, er, just came back for my Mickey..." She said clearing her throat. James sat up quickly and ran a hand through his hair.

"Here you go. I was just... yeah."

She took the toy from him, being extra careful not to touch his calloused hands. Then as quietly as she entered the room, she left.

James's mind came back to the present and he cleared his throat. He felt Lily resting her head on the closet's wall.

"Have you two snogged yet?" Sirius's voice, muffled by the wood, asked, ten minutes later.

"Open the bloody door, Padfoot!"

"Cannot, Prongs."

"I'm not joking, Padfoot." James warned.

"Neither am I. It's a spell. It'll only open up once there's some tongue action going on."

Both Lily and James groaned.

"Then you'd better call that Andrea Marshall for you dearest mate..." Lily bit back angrily.

"Oh, Merlin, not this again..." James muttered.

"... because I am _not_ touching his person ever again."

"She's got _Andy_ for this."

James felt Lily standing up and did the same (or as much as the closet allowed him to).

"He really can't properly hold his bloody wand, Potter!"

"Let's see how true this is when I hex his balls off, shall we?" James replied.

"Don't you dare hexing him, you giant beast! He's done nothing!"

"Nothing? He's throwing himself on a girl with a boyfriend! Who, by the way, happens to be me!"

"Ha, that's rich coming from the guy who's got a fan club that goes to every single training!"

"They just want to support their team!"

"For fuck's sake, they're not even from Gryffindor! Can't you _think_?"

"I thought you had established yesterday that I can't."

"Guess I was right as always!"

"Then get the bloody hell out of here to find Andy!" James screamed in frustration, throwing his hands in the air. Somehow their faces had come close enough for them to see each other.

"I can't!"

"I'm sure Remus will come soon and end this stupidity, then you can run off to bloody Andy." James snaped.

"Well, maybe I happen to like stupid buffoons who can't think!" Lily replied. James narrowed his eyes.

"Maybe I happen to like angry birds who are always right!"

They stared at each other for a few moments, then in the next they were kissing. One of James's hand grabbed Lily's waist firmly, keeping her as close as possible, while his other held the nape of her neck. Lily was simply happy to wrap her hands around his neck.

A couple of minutes later, a click announced the door being unlocked - not that James cared anymore. Lily, however, backed away, so he simply changed the target of his kisses to Lily's neck.

"James, the door is unlocked..." Lily muttered shakily.

"I know..." He replied with a husky voice on her ear.

"We're gonna be late..."

"Most definitely..."

"Minerva will murder us."

"Always a possibility." He agreed, biting her earlobe and gaining a gasp in response.

"We can go now..." Lily tried, despite the shudder that ran through her body.

James sighed and with a flick of his wand, locked the door again.

"No we can't." He said, pushing Lily against the closet wall and kissing her again.

And really, how could she argue with a logic like that?


	2. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Two: Soulmate AU, everyone has tattoos that write out your soulmates thoughts about you and I'm the one that has such passionate thoughts about your (freckles, eyes, eyelashes, etc)

_Stupid arse._

James read his first tattoo again. He could not understand why it had appeared. As soon as he saw it, he tried to hide it from his friends.

"Aha! Jamesie's found himself a soul mate!" Sirius had immediately shouted at the sight of the ink on his mate's arm. James sighed. Sirius laughed. Remus smirked. Peter ate.

"Fuck off, Padfoot." James growled as his best friend tried to see what it said.

"C'mon, mate, show us what it says!"

James tried to move away, but Sirius acted faster and held his arm.

"Well... that's awkward, Prongs. Does she think your arse is stupid or that you are a stupid arse?"

"Who the bloody fuck knows?"

"You should probably ask her. Who's she, anyway?" Sirius poked his arm, "Or is it a 'he'? We won't judge, you know that..."

"I've got no clue who it is."

He wasn't lying. He had had only interacted with Snape and the Marauders, aside from that third-year who had tripped over James's foot causing an outburst from Lily Evans...

And as far as Sirius joked, James was pretty sure his soul mate was a girl.

"Relax, Prongs. We're sixteen. You know that you only get those tattoos when you fall for your soul mate. Feel particularly attracted to someone right now?" Sirius asked in a mocking tone. James shook his head. "Then it's probably someone messing with you. It'll disappear, you'll see."

But it didn't disappear. James didn't change his routine at all: he still got in trouble with the Marauders, messed with Snivellus and other Slytherins, and rowed with prefects, mostly Evans.

He didn't exactly know why, but he enjoyed immensely to annoy, and to row with Evans. Possibly because she was pretty, probably because she had quick, witty comebacks – something hard to find.

And so it stayed like that, _stupid arse_ inked in his arm. He took extra care not to show the tattoo to anyone – he even managed to hide it when he lost his Quidditch jersey on the match while the Gryffindor house celebrated their win.

But that night – rather, the following morning – a couple of words appeared just a bit below the previous tattoos: _nice abs._

"At least it's a compliment this time, Prongs" Sirius said with a smirk when James told them under their favourite tree.

"Still don't know who it is?" Remus asked. James sighed and shook his head.

"Not a clue. It could be anyone on the stadium, really."

"Well, I'd say it's a Gryffindor, because you took your shirt off right on our stand." Remus argued.

"Good point, Moony. Now, why did you take your shirt off, anyway?" Sirius asked.

"It was hot. We won. Stuff like that." James replied with a shrug. A few moments passed in silence.

"How can you be in love with someone and not know it?" Peter asked, lying down on the grass.

"Who knows how this works." James replied simply. "Well, let's stop talking about nonsenses and plan our next prank."

"Not me, I'll start my O.W.L.s studying..." Remus said, getting up.

"They're two months away, Moony!" James yelled at his friend, who shrugged and continued his way to the castle.

"We can do it without him..." Sirius put as soon as Remus's retreating figure disappeared. "Maybe we could prank _him_!"

"Evans and him!" James suggested. Sirius barked and high-fived him. "Bet we won't even get caught this time!"

The next week found the three of them in detention.

"C'mon, Evans" James pleaded as she handed him an empty cauldron where he should put the frog spleens he was supposed to extract. "It was just a bit of paint."

"C'mon, Potter. It's just a few dozens of frogs." She mocked him. Remus didn't even try to hide his laugh. "You three almost ruined one of my favourite books that night."

"Well, I fixed it, didn't I?" He replied winking.

"Which is the only reason you're still alive, isn't it?"

"Nah, you'd never do anything harmful to someone as handsome as me..." James disagreed smirking. Evans rolled her eyes.

"Don't tempt me, Potter..." She warned, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, I know others ways I could tempt you, Evans..." he replied, his growing smirk being joined by wiggling eyebrows. Lily blushed and rolled her eyes, looking at Remus for patience.

What she found, however, was Remus's speculative glance between her and James.

"Well, I'm going to check on Black and Pettigrew. Can you take care of this stupid arse, Rem?" She asked him. But Remus looked a bit shocked. "Rem?"

"Uh, sure, Lil."

"Bye, bye, Evans! Have a good night reading your book!" James said cheerfully, running a hand through his hair as Lily shut the door after her. Then he looked at Remus positively glowing with mischief: "I replaced the name of the main character for my own on the whole book!"

Remus, however, didn't laugh. He remained still, the shocked expression on his face.

"It's her, Prongs." Remus said.

"What are you on about, Moony?"

"She called you a 'stupid arse'!"

"She always does." James replied shrugging. Remus rolled his eyes "What are you on about?"

"Lily's your soul mate, James!" Remus exclaimed. James laughed.

"That's stupid, Moony. Evans _can't_ be my soulmate."

"She is, though."

"She can't be, she hates me."

"Which is why you got 'stupid arse' inked."

"She doesn't go to Quidditch matches..." James argued, refusing to see logic.

"She attended the last one, Prongs. Mary is having something with one of the Ravenclaw players, so Lily went with her... which means, she totally saw you take your shirt off."

"But... I..."

"You annoy her all the time simply to get her attention to you!" Remus said, barking a laugh. "It all makes sense now! And you do fancy her, with all that flirting."

"I wasn't... that's just me and Evans. We work like that. We provoke each other until the last jab." James tried to explain, but even for him, his point was weak.

"Ha ha, this is perfect! That's why you act like a complete moron around her! You're pulling her braids, just like a 6 years old!"

"It's not like that, I just think she's pretty when she blushes... Evans just know how to hold her own in an argument, even with me... and she's an amazing witch..." James ranted, than looked at Remus, who was smiling widely. "Oh Merlin, I'm in love with her."

Remus laughed again.

"There you go! Aren't you happy now?" He asked.

"Happy? She may be my soul mate, but I'm definitively not _hers_!" James screeched. Remus laughed again.

"You know that's not how it works, Prongs. Just take it easy. Don't let it be awkward between you two. Ask her out sometime. _Don't_ mention the tattoo."

James absorbed Remus's advice and started his detention. Extracting frog spleens was nothing new to James; his father always liked to use ingredients as fresh as possible for his inventions.

So he finished everything faster than Lily wanted to believe.

"Already done?" She asked in disbelief when she came down to check on him.

"Uh, yeah?" Was James's brilliant reply, running a (now bloodied and disgusting) hand through his hair.

"How?" Lily inquired again, eyeing his hair eerily.

"Er, my dad." Was all he could reply. Lily frowned. Remus smiled.

"His father makes him get fresh ingredients for potions, so he's used by now..."

They made their way back to the Gryffindor Tower in silence. As they got to the portrait hole, James bid them goodnight and climbed the stairs of the boy's room quickly.

"What's wrong with him?" Lily asked frowning. Remus smiled.

"He just had an epiphany."

"Can he do that?"

Remus laughed and followed his friend.

James refused to call his discovery an 'epiphany'. He'd rather stick with 'new truth'.

"I still can't believe you're in love with Evans..." Peter said snickering. James glared at him.

"Forget in love! She's Prongs' _soul mate_!" Sirius laughed.

"Who's James's soul mate?" Mary asked, her and Lily joining the Marauders on the Common Room.

Sirius smirked and was about to spill the New Truth. He was all in for that, mostly to see James squirm and Lily scream at James.

But alas, the pleasure was denied by a well planted slap on the back of his head from his best mate.

"Ow!" He screamed.

"Padfoot's being a prick, as usual." James said. Only Lily noticed he didn't deny the overhead conversation. "Why, MacDonald? Wishing it could be you?" He asked, winking.

"Oh, no, Merlin forbid me. I'm not your type, Potter." She replied laughing.

"And what is my type, MacDonald?"

"Feisty smart girls." She replied shrugging. The mischief in her told him she knew something. That and the thumb she pointed at Lily.

James ran a hand through his hair.

"How did you come to this conclusion, huh?" He asked, trying not to face Lily.

"Basic human observation. Let's go, Lil. These guys are lame."

Lily rolled her eyes and left immediately. Mary returned after a couple moments and leaned in James's ear: "I know she's one of the few people who call you 'stupid arse'... try hiding your tattoo better next time you take your shirt off..."

James gulped and was unable to form a phrase in time for the girl to listen.

Still, he took extra care with his tattoo. If MacDonald had seen it, who else had?

After the New Truth had been out, James spent a week trying to get used to it. Seven days of him trying to sneak glances at Lily as furtive as possible (which was almost no furtive at all, considering he was amazingly prone to trip).

Two weeks after the New Truth, Sirius convinced him that they had to do some kind of prank, just because they hadn't done so in a while.

As usual, Lily Evans was the one who caught the boys on their mischief.

"... cannot believe you're on this again! O.W.L.s are only a few weeks away!" The girl said, glaring at James and Sirius. "If you don't want good grades, at least don't disturb those who do! Didn't you want to be an auror, Potter?"

James, however, had stopped listening to the girl, focusing on her instead of her words. And it explained exactly why James actually did what he did, when he did it:

He ran a hand through his hair, smiled his best flirty smile and followed Remus's advice. "Hey, Evans. Go out with me?"

Lily stopped talking at once, while Sirius started laughing. The girl crossed her arms and shook her head.

"What?!"

"You know... have a Butterbeer... eat something... get some candies... maybe a goodnight snog..." He also wiggled his eyebrows.

Lily looked from James to Sirius. Then she decided she had had enough.

And that's the story of how James Potter was hexed by Lily Evans for the first time. As soon as he discovered how to get rid of the tentacles, he asked her out again.

She graced him with a purple skin.

On this day, "lunatic" appeared inked on James's other arm.

A week later (after James tried to ask Lily out during dinner in the Great Hall) "moron" appeared on James's lower back.

He didn't give up. Not until "arrogant toerag" became his newest tattoo, now dangerously close to being visible on his chest. The day he decided to get Snivellus underwear for the whole school to see was also the day he decided soul mates were bullshit.

And that the only way to not get new insults being permanently inked on him was to stop interacting at all with Lily Evans (his poor heart agreed on not getting broken once again).

So for the best part of sixth year, no more words appeared on James. Lily was visibly curious, but not enough to question him. He toned the pranks down (really, annoying Lily had been the best part on those last times).

They talked so little on sixth year that when Lily accosted James to inquire on why Remus and Sirius had fought, and how that involved Severus Snape of all people, James actually blinked several times and looked around to make sure it was him she was talking to, even though the Quidditch field was empty.

"I'm not really sure if that concern you, Evans," he replied, getting up on his broomstick (for he was under a lot of stress caused by Sirius's stunt, and Merlin be damned if flying didn't make it better for a few moments).

"Well, I'm pretty certain it _is_ my business!" Lily snapped. "Remus is one of my best friends and he's in a lot of pain for something your best mate did! Black told me to fuck off, Peter blabbered about food and Severus is a fucking stupid prat." James wondered briefly if 'fucking stupid prat' was being inked on Snivellus at the moment, but then shook his head. Not important anymore.

"So you came to me as a last resort?" James asked with a humourless smirk. "Nice, Evans."

"Don't you 'nice, Evans' me, Potter! You were the one who stopped talking to me at all!" She replied, raising her tone.

"I only did what you asked. I might be a stupid arse, but I've learnt when to back off."

Lily rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Just tell me what happened, alright? I just want to help Rem. You're his friend too. We want the same thing on this."

James sighed. She was right. He looked at her, and he realized all his hard work at keeping his distance had been in vain - he still loved her all the same. How could he not, when she did things like this?

"Sirius did shit. Moony would end up hurting Snape. I undid Sirius shit. Moony got mad at Sirius, Sirius is mad at everyone, mostly himself. Moony blames himself. Snape is a prick. The end." James said, putting on his gloves.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Lily exclaimed, holding James by the arm to stop him from flying away.

"Well, this is the best I can tell you. You may be Moony's friend, but I won't tell all of our secrets to you like that." Lily narrowed her eyes "Have you actually tried talking to Remus about this, Evans?" Lily remained in silence. "Just go. He might actually listen to you."

This time James was too quick for Lily to hold him back; he flew from his problems and from the girl he absolutely loved.

Later that night, he thought he was delusional. After a very long time, another tattoo appeared. This time it read "brave".

"So Evans talked to you?" He asked Remus as soon as he saw his friend the following day.

"Yes. Thanks, James." He replied with a quiet smile. James grinned back. Then slowly showed a confused face.

"Hey, what did you exactly told her?" James asked and Remus gulped.

"Only about my secret. Yours is safe."

But James didn't mind this much about his secret – Moony’s worried him more.

So he used the Marauder's Map to locate Lily on the library, where she sat in a table with Mary MacDonald and Marlene McKinnon.

"Good evening, ladies" He greeted, looking only to Mary and Marlene and sporting his best smile "Mind if I steal Evans for a bit?"

Both said not at all, while Lily replied that, well, she minded! James smiled at the other two (ignoring Mary's advice not to leave a hickey) and pulled Evans by the arm.

"First, let go of me!" Lily asked when they stopped on the deserted History section "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you." He replied, looking at her eyes (her so beautiful eyes).

"How did you know I was here?" She challenged him.

"How did you know I was at the field yesterday?"

"You spend an awful amount of time down there..." She replied, shrugging. "And Mary told me."

"You spend an awful amount of time up here..." he shot back. Then smirked "No one told me. I just knew."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"What do you want from me, Potter?" She asked.

"Well, it has come to my knowledge that you know about Remus's furry little problem." James said, raising his eyebrows.

"Furry little...?" Lily asked, confused.

"About him being a werewolf!" James whispered. Lily nodded.

"Yeah, I know about that. So?" She challenged him, crossing her arms.

"So here's two things, Evans. One, you can't say this to anyone. Not a word. Not a soul. Not to MacDonald or McKinnon or even your parents. You got it? It's bad enough that Snape knows."

"I wasn't planning on telling anyone, Potter."

"Good. Keep that plan. Don't let it slip. No one can know."

"Right, I'm not stupid!" She snaped. "I know what could happen to Rem if people were to know. Just because I'm muggleborn doesn't mean I'm not a witch."

"I never said that" James replied at once. "I don't give a damn about your parents." He said. Lily raised her eyebrows. "I mean about them being muggles. Not important. On this case what matters is: don't spill the beans."

"Merlin, I already told you I won't!" She bit at him. A couple moments of silence... "What's the other thing?"

"Don't you dare stop being friends with Moony because of this. He's one of the best people to ever grace this planet." James hesitated. "The bigger loss would surely be yours but... he does like you. A lot."

Lily stared at James in silence. Then smiled a very tiny smile.

"I'm not going to unfriend Remus because of this. He's a bit... wild once a month. Whatever. He's completely amazing the rest of the time. As I don't usually spend the nights with Rem, it won't be a problem."

"Usually?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. Lily's smile grew a little.

"We've got out moments. Don't pry on my friendship, Potter." James smiled and shook his head.

"I'll try."

"Besides... who's not a bit wild from time to time?" She asked him. James smirked at the irony.

"I'm mostly wild myself, Evans."

Lily eyed him and smiled even more (was this really happening?).

"Well, message delivered. I'll just leave you be now. Just... not a soul, ok?"

"Sure." James nodded and turned his back, when Lily called him back.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you do it? Why did you save Severus?" She asked. James frowned.

"What the fuck could I have done? Remus would kill himself after killing Sirius and... Snape and I aren't the best of mates, but I couldn't let it happen to anyone."

Lily eyed him and smiled. James didn't know what to do, so he just left.

It came as another surprise to see "loyal" on his ribs.

A week later, James was working on his Transfigurations homework on his favourite table of the Common Room when a chair beside him moved.

"So who ever came with 'furry little problem' anyway?" Lily Evans asked, smiling.

"What?" James asked, not quite believing she was sitting there.

"The term 'furry little problem'. Who came up with it?"

"I did." James replied, feeling his face heat up. Lily laughed. "I was twelve, Evans."

"Alright, Potter."

"I was!" He insisted. Lily giggled.

"I honestly don't doubt it. You were always a bit younger on the head..."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"It's still true."

James honestly tried to be mad at her - only if for joking - but he couldn't help his smile.

"Well, I'd rather say I'm a young soul."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Lily conceded and laughed again as she left.

This time James couldn't be surprised when "huge dork" appeared on his torso.

Now the tattoos would appear in smaller letters. James’s trunk was filled with small words; Lily Evans had become, to his delight and surprise, his friend.

'Fucking giant eyelashes' was voted by James's friends as the weirdest of his tattoos, surpassing even 'stupid arse'. James didn't really mind, because right above it, another read 'strong jaw'.

One day of the winter, James and Lily went for a walk outside. She really wanted to be in the snow, but couldn't convince anyone - except for James, who would've done it even if 'brilliant mate' wasn't currently written on his calf.

"Slughorn does not have a crush on me!" Lily shrieked, laughing.

"He so obviously does, Evans! You probably could report him." He replied with a huge grin on his face. "Just please don't get yourself a boyfriend before our tests, ok? I think he might take his broken heart out on us."

Lily laughed once more.

"You're being ridiculous, James. He probably would like you as much as he likes me if he wasn't so afraid of your father." Lily argued, stopping to lean into a tree. "Which is absurd, because your father created Sleekeazy's, not a poison."

"I'll have you know my father can be very scary!" He cried out. Lily giggled.

He looked at her and smiled back, noticing her very blushed cheeks. This was even better than when they rowed, because her very pretty flustered face also emitted this symphonic-like giggle.

"...and you're not listening to a word I'm saying, are you?" She asked, crossing her arms. James grinned guiltily.

"Not a single thing."

"Quit staring at my face and pay attention on what I'm saying, Potter!" She demanded with a smirk.

"Sorry, it's just... you look so pretty when you're blushing like that..." He justified, touching her cheek without thinking (even with the glove covering his hand, he felt it tingling).

"Oh." Lily said, uncrossing her arms and blinking. James cursed internally.

"Which is what makes Slughorn so fond of you," He added quickly. Lily laughed and threw a snowball at him.

A couple of days later, James could be found in the Common Room, drawing diagrams for the Quidditch team.

"You know, I think you could be a good drawer if you really applied to it." Lily said, sitting at his side. James's lips twitched.

"Who says I don't?"

"I say it."

"Well, if I did apply myself to it..." James said, while Lily sniggered "... you would have hurt my feelings." Lily rolled her eyes but couldn't hold back her smile.

"Idiot." She said. James raised his eyebrows.

"I recall being a 'stupid arse', thank you very much!"

Lily rolled her eyes again and punched his arm. They fell in a comfortable silence. Until...

"D'you believe in that soul mates rubbish?" Lily asked. James gulped hard and avoided looking at her.

"What- hm, what rubbish you're talking about?" James asked, eyes on his diagrams.

"Y'know, the tattoos rubbish. That when you fall for someone what they think of you appears as a tattoo on your body."

"Well... why do you ask?" James said instead.

"Answer me first, Potter."

He had to look at her by then. Her eyes were cautious, and her face held no emotions. But her intertwined fingers sold her to James.

"I think it's possible. Why not?" He replied. Then he sighed "My parents have got the tattoos. I believe in it 'cause they're still like teens in love" James snorted. Lily bit her lip.

"How did they know they were each other soul mate?" She asked.

"They said they just knew. That..." He hesitated and looked at her beautiful green orbs "... that when you find your soul mate, you just know."

They stared at each other for a couple moments.

"Why'd you ask, Evans? You got a tattoo?" He asked, hiding his jealousy behind a smile.

"You reckon the soul mates are always reciprocal? I mean, can your soul mate have a soul mate that's not you?" She ignored his question.

"Not sure. Suppose it can." He replied, trying not to show how much he wished it couldn't happen "But again, why the sudden interest, Evans?"

"Nothing. Gotta run. Bye!" She replied, leaving as quickly as she could manage.

James found her behaviour extremely odd, but couldn't really think on it. He made a mental note to ask Lily next time they talked.

But it seemed Lily was trying to avoid him. He worried about her having found a soul mate that wasn't him, with all her talking about the tattoos.

That night, however, he had to focus on other things, like helping Sirius controlling werewolf-Remus. He couldn't let his mind slip. Even if Lily was possibly in love with some other guy.

He shook his head, trying to focus. But not quickly enough. Last thing James remembered was a giant paw hitting his head.

Then he was in the common room, lying on the couch, with no glasses. Even then he could identify Lily's hair.

"What's going on?" He asked, trying to sit and wincing. He felt Lily putting his glasses on him.

"You're fucking insane?" She asked growling, "You could've died!"

"I'm fine." He replied.

"You're not fine. Sirius says you had a pretty ugly fall." Lily said, getting her wand "He's getting Remus back to that horrible place."

"Shit. It's my fault. I was distracted. I gotta go down there." He said, trying to get up. Lily stopped him.

"No you don't. You'll sit there, and you'll let me take care of the gash that's soaking through your shirt. Take it off now."

Something in the back of his head told him it was a bad idea. He ignored it.

Lily gasped slightly at his exposed torso, and James at first thought it was because of a possibly giant gash.

Lily muttered a spell, closing the wound, but her eyes travelled over James's trunk. Then James remembered about his tattoos and winced.

"So you do believe in that soul mates rubbish, then?" She asked quietly.

"Will you believe if I say I had those all done because I wanted?"

"I hardly think someone would willingly tattoo 'cute bum' and... and 'stupid arse'." She replied with a gulp. Had she recognized some of her words? "At least not this close to one another..."

James cracked a grin.

"Well, then I sorta believe on that rubbish."

"How long?" She asked, reading every single tattoo her eyes could reach.

"Couple years." James replied. Lily looked at his eyes.

"Do you know who she is?"

"Yeah. But I don't think I'm her soul mate, though."

"Why?"

"Well, I don't think being considered a 'stupid arse' is a sign of love." He replied sarcastically.

"You sound like you've given up on her."

"Sorta. I know when to back off."

She eyed him for a few moments and handed him his shirt.

"Don't give up unless you've tried everything."

With that enigmatic note, she left him.

Remus thought James was lying to distract him from what he had done to James.

"It's not a lie, Moony! She actually saw my tattoos." James argued. The four of them were on the hospital wing, waiting for Remus to recover.

"Did she recognize anything?" Sirius asked.

"I honestly don't know. She told me not to give up. What does this mean?"

Remus grunted and closed his eyes.

James tried to pay even more attention to Lily than usual - now looking for possible tattoos, and trying to overlook all the things he loved about her: her amazing freckles, her brilliant hair, her out of this world eyes, her perfect mouth...

The only thing he actually noticed was her new bracelet.

"Thank you," she replied with a smile when he said it was cool, "It's from a boy I babysat this summer - he loves to do this kind of thing..."

He thought it a bit weird that she refused to take it off, but was so lost admiring her hand that it didn't mean much.

As winter turned to spring, James couldn't stop finding new reasons to love Lily - and their friendship grew even stronger. Rowing was an unusual event between them, so James made an extra effort to make Lily laugh to get flustered.

So when he was sitting on the prefects meeting room, quietly reading the reports from the previous week, and Lily barged in, as red as she always were when he irritated her.

But he hadn't done anything - nothing that she could possibly know, anyway.

"James Potter!" She screamed, crossing her arms. Her hair was all over her, cascading over her shoulders and clashing with both her Gryffindor robes and her flushed face.

"What?" James replied getting up at once "I did nothing, I swear!"

"Like hell!" She said, after snorting "Because of you I can't ever again use my hair up!"

"What? How in the world is that my fault?" He asked alarmed.

"Who in their right mind thinks their friend has a 'sexy glare'?" She asked angrily.

James frowned.

"What?" He asked a third time. "I've got absolutely no idea what you're on about."

"What I'm on about, James Potter, is that since that bloody 'beautiful blush' ink appeared, not _two_ months ago, I've been covered with these stupid tattoos, and most of them are so dumb! What 'angel from hell' even means? Can't you come up with normal things? Now I've got 'sexy glare' on the back of my neck. How am I supposed to wear my hair up?" She challenged him.

"Ha, that's rich coming from the bird who thinks of me as a 'stupid arse' with a 'cute bum'! And at least all of yours are compliments! Most of mine are 'lunatic' or 'moron'!"

Lily made a confused face.

"Wait. I'm your soul mate?" She asked. James looked at her as if she was crazy.

"Who else would be? Are you daft? Do you honestly believe anyone but you would be my soul mate?" He replied.

"But... you're my soul mate..."

"You what?!" James almost screamed.

"Well, _that_ was pretty obvious! I thought you knew, you were so uncomfortable that day!"

"Because I was certain you'd recognize your insults!" He said, getting a bit closer.

"Hey! There're a couple compliments too!" She argued.

"Whatever. You... I'm your soul mate?" He asked, cupping her face with a hand. She blushed and looked down.

"Yeah, of course you are. I thought for sure you knew that. I told you not to give up because I surely wasn't giving up on you. Not that I was actually wooing you or anything, but-"

What she was actually going to do, James never got to know, because, with a smile as big as he could muster, he pulled her closer to him and kissed her for all those years he had spent wanting to.

Much, much later, when he got on his dorm with an even messier hair, untucked shirt and loose tie, his smile told his mates everything.

"So I guess now the inks are getting a change?" Remus asked, not bothering to hide his smirk behind his book. James laughed.

"I surely hope so."

"Nice, Prongs." Sirius said smiling at James.

It was better than nice, James thought as he changed. There wasn't a word to describe how nice it was.

Even more when he noticed that the back of his right hand now portrayed "Bloody brilliant snog" for the world to see.


	3. Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Three: My best friend is on date with your best friend and tricked us into going on a double date but I secretly have a crush on you

Lily Evans loved Marlene McKinnon with all her heart. Since the first night on the Gryffindor girls dormitory, they became best friends at once.

Sure, she had other friends. Remus Lupin, for example. He was a brilliant mate, very kind and loyal. She had been friends with Severus Snape too - not that it had been for the best.

The girls from her dormitory were cool, also. And she usually had some laughs with Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew too. Truth be told, the only people from Hogwarts she couldn't really stand were the Slytherins. She could even tolerate James Potter nowadays (that's what she said to her friends).

But no one on the school came near to Marlene McKinnon. She was almost family to Lily.

Which explained why it was really hard for Lily to say "no" to Marlene.

"Please, please!" Marlene begged while they were playing exploding snap. Lily shook her head.

"I don't know, Marls. It'll be really awkward."

"I swear it won't! You know I've always wanted to go out with Sirius, but he got the idea it was a group meeting, so he already invited James before I could correct him..." Marlene explained.

"It won't be awkward for you. It'll be awkward for me." Lily argued.

"Please, Lil! It took all the courage I had to just ask him... I already agreed it was a group meeting..." Marlene pleas were met with a sigh from Lily.

"Why won't the others be going again?"

"Remus and Peter are on detention for the last prank, Mary's got herself a date and that's pretty much it." Marlene explained with a small, hopeful smile. Lily narrowed her eyes.

"Wait a minute. By 'group meeting' you mean 'double date'?" Lily asked through gritted teeth. Marlene made a face and sighed.

"Please, please, please! I'll talk to James and explain it to him! He won't think it's a date!"

"No. I will talk to him. You're not trustworthy." Lily agreed. Marlene grinned.

"So you'll do it?"

"Yes, McKinnon."

"Oh, thank you, Lily!" Marlene said, hugging her friend, who rolled her eyes.

"You owe me big time."

"Sure! Anything."

One may wonder why Lily feared the group meeting (she refused to think it was a double date). For her, it was clear: James Potter had tried to go out with her since fifth year, always failing because she found him to be quite arrogant.

It was a surprise to her to discover he could be a nice person – one who didn't hex younger kids for no reason – when they were thrown together as head students. Not only that, but James also was responsible and (that really surprised her) nice.

Sure, he still played childish pranks, his dorkiness was still very remarkable, and his arrogance was now directed at his Quidditch team. But he also helped first-years with school work, made Lily laugh and was a good friend.

"Hey, Potter." Lily said, as she slid to a chair next to his on the library. He looked up and smiled, adjusting his glasses.

"Evans. What do I owe the honour of your presence? Surely nothing regarding patrols?" He growled, "I swear I'll just curse them all if we've got to do it again...!" Lily chuckled at him and raised her eyebrows.

"Merlin, relax, Potter, it's not. But I guess I'll be dealing with the prefects from now on. I really don't want to fill a report with that amount of names." Lily teased him. He grinned.

"Just admit you don't want me getting in trouble, Evans."

"Well, that is also a factor." She replied, grinning right back. Indeed, he was fun to talk to.

"So if the little tossers aren't requesting another patrol schedule, what made you come seek me? Could it possibly be interest in my good looks?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Lily rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her blush. He really was good looking.

"It's, uh, a different tosser." She said, her face turning to a grimace.

"What has Padfoot done this time?" James asked after a sigh. Lily grinned.

"Well, it was my tosser's fault, actually. Sirius is also involved, but..."

"Lily." He said. Lily looked at his hazel eyes behind those round spectacles and he raised his eyebrows. "You're making absolutely no sense." Lily sighed.

"This is a sort of secret, but Marlene, my tosser, has had a crush on your tosser, Sirius, since forever. So she finally summed her courage and asked him out, but he somehow understood it as a group meeting and..." Lily sighed again, "long story short, we're going on a double date. But it's not really a date for us, just for them. We're just pretending."

"You lost me again, Lil." He said. She couldn't look at him.

"Well, Marlene turned it in a double date. The two of them and the two of us. As in you and I."

"Oh."

She stole a quick glance up at him, but his face was unreadable.

"I just accepted because Marlene asked me. I didn't want to pretend- I don't want to play with your feelings- I mean, I don't even know if you still have them." She stuttered. "Well, I know you still have feelings, I meant feelings for me, in which case it'd be simply cruel, so if you don't want to, just agree and pretend to be sick. I'm sorry, I-"

"Evans." He interrupted him. "Breathe." She did as he said. "It's alright. Sirius also has had a crush on your tosser since always. I'll do it for them. And the both of us won't be on a date. Don't worry. It won't get awkward."

Lily nodded, offering him a small smile.

On the day of Hogsmead, Marlene woke up to see Lily quietly browsing through her wardrobe. Marlene smirked.

"Good morning, Lils. Everything alright?" She greeted. Lily turned, her face mixing a grimace and a smile.

"Just splendid. Everything alright. You?"

"I'm fine... how long have you been up?"

"Not sure. There was this bloody owl on the window at dawn, and you know I'm a light sleeper, so I had my breakfast already and now I'm looking through some outfits for us..."

"Merlin. You're actually nervous." Marlene said, laughing. Lily blushed.

"I'm not, I just couldn't sleep and I hate being late, you know that. Besides, you have to be perfect, I mean, more than usual. It's your date with Sirius, after all."

"I've already chosen what to wear."

"Oh." Lily replied dumbly. "Good then. You should probably head down to breakfast. You'll need some time to get ready."

Marlene nodded along and did as Lily said.

The red haired girl was still on the closet when Marlene got back.

"Lil, I know the perfect outfit for you."

"You- hm, you do?" Lily asked, clearing her throat. "Well, I mean, it doesn't actually have to be perfect. Just, uh, believable, of course."

Marlene smirked.

"Considering we're on a supposed double date, perfect is the only option. So you just grab those tight jeans of yours, use the red blouse, cover it with your white overcoat and use the Gryffindor scarf to add the perfect touch. Y'know. Considering you're on a supposed date with James Potter, Quidditch captain."

Lily stared at her friend and fought a smile that threatened to creep upon her face.

"Good then. Let's not make Sirius wait much longer for you!"

They joined the boys on the Entrance Hall. Marlene squeezed Sirius's hand at once, and they grinned to each other. James had his back to the girls, busy talking to what seemed to be a third-year.

This time Lily's smile couldn't be held back.

"He does look rather fetching, doesn't him?" Marlene whispered on Lily's ear. Lily blushed.

"What-? No, I... he's just talking to that little boy. He swore he'd never bother himself with 'small, annoying brats'. And there he is. Calming Andrew Scott down, who's going on his first date ever."

Marlene chuckled.

"Well, to be fair to little Scotty, I'd say they're both equally flustered..."

Lily, however, couldn't judge, for as she looked back at the scene, Andrew Scott waved at her, causing James to turn.

When he did so, his hand shot up to his hair immediately and he raised the other, not actually waving. He wore the same smile he always did whenever he saw Lily, the one that screamed happiness. But she could also sense he was a bit... nervous?

Lily decided she had to help Andrew too. On her approach, James put both his hands on Andrew's shoulders, changing his smile into a smirk.

"Alright, Evans?" He asked her, nodding his head, all confidence recovered.

"Sure, Potter." She replied, smiling. "Today's the big day, huh, Andrew?"

"Uh, yeah, Lily. But... she's a tad late. Perhaps she gave up?" The boy asked, looking around. Lily smiled kindly.

"I'm sure she's just a bit nervous. Probably lost track of time getting ready. We girls do that sometimes. James here knows that first hand, don't you?" She said, elbowing the Head Boy.

"Yeah, they like to make us sweat a bit. See... there she is... Have fun, mate. Lily and I will leave you be."

Andrew smiled, nodded and motioned towards his date, while James and Lily smiled after him.

"Poor lad. Bird was getting him all nervous." James said, putting his hands on his pockets. The two of them made their way towards Marlene and Sirius, who chattered happily.

"She probably was nervous herself. Come on, Potter. You remember your first date, don't you?"

"Uh. Only the highlights. Those glorious hours when our mouths were put to better use than talking, if you know what I mean..." James said, wiggling his eyebrows. Lily laughed and socked his arm. "Just kidding, Evans. It was a good night peck, very respectable. We only snogged on the second date. But I really wasn't nervous."

"Really?" She asked sceptically.

"Oi, with the disbelief. Of course I wasn't. I was rather conceited back then. There was no way she wouldn't like me."

"Back then? You're still rather conceited nowadays, dear."

"Hey!" James protested, chuckling and bumping her hip with his.

"So the girl didn't stand him up?" Sirius asked as the quartet met up and started for the carriage, passing through Filch.

"Nope. Just ran a bit late." James replied.

"Poor sod. Girls love to do that." Sirius's response was accompanied with a shake of his head. Marlene snorted.

"Five minutes late is acceptable. Sometimes our eyeliner causes an accident." She said.

"I haven't the foggiest what the bloody fuck an eyeliner is." James confessed, adjusting his glasses.

"It's what makes Lily's lovely eyes stand out even more." Marlene explained simply. James and Sirius looked at Lily.

"Uh. Yeah, five minutes late is ok." The former replied quietly, looking straight at her eyes and blushing slightly.

"Not gonna complain. You look amazing, Marls." Sirius complimented, winking. Marlene grinned.

"You're not so bad yourself, Mr. Black."

Marlene and Sirius used the journey to Hogsmead to flirt, allowing James and Lily to talk.

"Nice outfit. Gryffindor pride. I like it." He said, pointing to her scarf. She grinned.

"Well, I'm pretending to be on a date with the Quidditch captain, aren't I?" She challenged him.

"Touché." He replied, smiling quietly. "Even more with the next game so close. You're coming, right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. So you'd better win."

James's smirk only stimulated Lily to further provoke him, to which James had to reply with little updates on Gryffindor trainings.

When the carriage stopped, Sirius helped Marlene to get down and took hold of her hand.

"Should we follow their lead or...?" Lily asked. James shrugged.

"Sure. Later we can get lost and let those two alone, eh?" He suggested, offering his hand and a smile. She smiled back and took his hand, a hint of a blush tinted on her cheeks.

And so they followed Sirius and Marlene, making up excuses for them to flee and leave the lovebirds alone on a real date.

Marlene wanted to visit Honeydukes, while Sirius needed to pay a trip to Zonko's. They decided they should leave the candies for desert, and headed to the pranksters' paradise.

"You know...", Lily said, as she watched James's eyes sparkling as he eyed the shelves "you're the Head Boy. You shouldn't be this excited about Dungbombs..."

"I may be Head Boy, but it's only a year. I'll be a Marauder forever!" He argued, winking at her. Lily snorted.

"I'm not sure on what to comment on this insanity you've just sputtered..."

James rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrist (of course her heart only beat faster because she didn't expect any sort of touching, nothing related to who was doing it - James always did that, and her heart always responded this way).

"Don't comment, just join me on my mission – which of those you reckon will drive Filch spare?"

It was Lily's turn to roll her eyes, but couldn't _not_ help him.

They chose The Three Broomsticks for lunch, as even if full, James and Sirius always managed to get special treatment.

James and Lily shared a plate of meat, while Sirius and Marlene chose fish and chips. The girls struggled to try to pay for their lunch, but the boys were having none of it.

"I'm a gentleman, Evans" James explained as they walked out of the bar.

"It's not a real date, Potter." She replied, rolling her eyes. James held her hand, regardless of her words.

"Doesn't matter, really. My mum taught me well, missy. There's absolutely no way I'll ever let you pay for our food. Get used to it."

"That's completely stupid, James," Lily argued looking at him through slightly narrowed eyes. "You can't always pay for me. I'll pay sometimes."

Lily liked how he'd told her to 'get used to it'. It meant he planned on going out with her again - not as a date, of course, but his company was always very enjoyable.

"We may discuss this later, Lils. Just know you'll lose."

"You might forget your wallet." She sang and he laughed "Or I can make you forget it. You just see."

James sighed.

"Ok, let's compromise here. I might allow you to buy me one candy. But just one."

"That's not really fair!" Lily said as they entered Honeydukes. "You paid for my lunch and I'll only give you back a stupid chocolate?"

"That's right. I'm already backing down here."

Lily narrowed her eyes and let go of his hand.

"Alright then. Wait outside for me."

James frowned, and reluctantly did as she asked, pacing in front of the store.

"Are you insane, Evans?" James asked as she left the store, a defiant grin on her lips and two big bags filled with candies.

"Oh, shut it, Potter. It's for the both of us." She replied. He took the bags from her hands. "Let's sit down somewhere, shall we? There's a lot of stuff in here."

James glared at her, but did as she told, grabbing her hand once again, leading to a bench near the store.

"So what motivated all this nonsense?" He asked, patting the space next to him on the bench. Lily sat down smiling.

"I thought that we might need sweets while we worked on Head Duties..."

"Huh, I think you might be right..." James replied grinning "But I think I might be needing some chocolate right now..."

Lily laughed and gave him a Chocolate Frog, while she had a lollypop.

Hanging out with James was really easy, Lily considered, watching him as he merrily retold the story behind his very first adventure on the Forbidden Forest. He was naturally happy, even with his wild temper. He fought the war on her side - the right side. He was, although pretty conceited, extremely selfless, and the best and most loyal friend someone could ask. He had matured incredibly since Fifth Year.

And he really was very handsome.

And right then and there, in a bench in Hogsmead, in the middle of a fake date, while he retold a near-death experience, Lily accepted the acknowledgment of her feelings: she fancied James Potter, the tosser. Quiet a lot.

This reconnaissance must have somehow been shown on her face, for James stopped talking, burrowing his frown at her.

"What?" He asked, confused. Lily giggled.

"It's nothing. I was just far away. Sorry." She admitted.

"Oh. I can tell another story, if you'd like. Or shut it, if I'm boring you too much." He proposed her sheepishly. Lily shook her head, smiling still.

"No, no, it's not that, James." How odd and thrilling it was to say his name now. "I just realised something. You know I love your stories. Please, keep going."

"Nah, I'll finish it later. What did you realise?" James asked, eyeing her curiously.

It was not like she could just tell him. 'Just that I fancy you very much. Would you mind terribly snogging me? Much thanks!' didn't seem like a good way of letting him know (even if it sounded rather effective). The mere thought made her blush.

"I'd rather tell you later..." She whispered. James frowned.

"No, tell me now. You're blushing..." He noticed, caressing her cheek with his fingertips. She leaned into the touch, not realising that this also brought her face closer to his.

"Lil?" He murmured, now cupping her face with his hand.

"I..." She didn't finish her sentence - not that she knew what to say after that - she just closed her eyes and sighed, forcefully closing the gap between them both and wrapping a hand on his neck.

If he was surprised by her sudden attack, he didn't show it - he just kissed her back, pulling her closer to him. Her other hand tangled on his silky hair, while she enjoyed the taste of chocolate coming from James's mouth.

She felt James's other hand on her waist, but couldn't think more of it, as her glorious moment was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

James and Lily broke apart quickly, to see Sirius and Marlene, both wearing amused faces.

"Well, having fun, are we?" Sirius asked, smirking. Lily blushed harder.

"We just... erm..." James stuttered.

"It's alright, mate," Sirius said, "you're just enjoying your date."

"It's not- we're not on a date." Lily replied quickly. Marlene rolled her eyes.

"You can be pretty dense, Lily. It's always been a date – for the both of you." She explained. "Sirius and I have actually been together for a month, sweety. We staged all of this to get you sillyheads on a date together."

"James showed all signs of losing his bold courage to ask you out..." Sirius explained smirking.

"And you being the most stubborn person to grace this planet and not admitting you fancied the tosser..." Marlene completed.

"We had to act. Sirius and Marlene 1, stupidity 0." Sirius said grinning and hi-fiving his (newly discovered) girlfriend.

"Nice to know it worked. We'll leave you be. Enjoy the rest of your date!" Marlene said, grabbing Sirius's hand and leaving.

James cupped Lily's face again, grinning.

"So where were we?" He asked. Lily chuckled.

"Avoiding the awkward part and snogging until our lips are numb?" She suggested. James laughed and pulled her to a kiss.

"Sounds like a perfect fake date to me."


	4. Day Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Four: I have a nightmare about you dying so I have to check to make sure you're alive, oops did I wake you up?

"This is getting out of hand...!" Lily thought as she tossed around in her bed.

She looked at her watch. 2 am. She hadn't slept much this night.

Or the previous. Or any night of this past week. Those bloody nightmares were terrible.

She sighed. She was sick of waiting on her bed, only to get the same images back. She wouldn't be able to sleep anyway.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, she got up from her bed, dressed her night robe and her slippers and reached the door.

"Lily?" Marlene asked groggily "Where you goin'?"

"Downstairs. Go back to sleep. I'll be back soon."

Her friend did as she told and Lily left, tiptoeing until she reached the boy's Dorm. She knew she wouldn't have to be as quiet there – the Marauders were extremely heavy sleepers.

She didn't need a light to indicate the way to her boyfriend's bed. She sighed in relief as she saw he was alive and well.

To her surprise, the sound did wake James up. He rubbed his eyes, and frowned as he tried to recognise who was hovering his bed.

"Lil?" He asked, uncertain.

"Yes, it's me..." She whispered back. He sat up and grabbed his glasses on his nightstand. James smiled as he always did when he saw her, and pulled her to sit on the bed beside him.

"What're you doing here? What's time is it?"

"Uh, I'm not sure... I..." Her voice cracked and he frowned.

"Hey, love, you can tell me..." He mumbled, holding her face.

"It's just..." She exhaled heavily. "Since those Death Eaters threatened you, I've been having these... nightmares. It's stupid, I know, but I've been coming up here to check up on you. I'm sorry I awoke you. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

He raised his eyebrows and smiled a tiny smile, pulling her to his chest.

They had ran into some Slytherins, known to be Death Eaters. They had said they'd take care of James. He had laughed and cursed them. Lily, although helping with the hexes, hadn't taken it so lightly.

"I don't want you worrying about me, you hear?" James whispered softly in her ear. "They won't come up here and do anything to me. They can't touch me while I'm at Hogwarts."

"But we're leaving in six months!" She argued. "And don't forget Christmas break!" James chuckled.

"They can't touch me at home either, love. Dad's put more protective spells in that place than you can even imagine."

"They still can poison you or something..." She tried. He chuckled and she sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just really worried about you. Guess it'll be worse when we leave and we can't check up on you."

"Well, you know the solution, don't you?" He asked, his smirk clear on his whisper. "I'm just gonna have to move in with you."

Lily laughed. Since her parents had passed away the previous year, she had gotten herself a small flat in which she lived by herself. James always joked about moving in with her, even before they had started dating.

"It'd solve two problems, so I really don't see why not." He said, shrugging. Lily backed away from his embrace.

"Two problems?" She asked. James sighed and touched the tip of her nose.

"Don't you think I'd be worried to death with you living by yourself with this war?" He asked. She smiled in response, "Or even if there wasn't a war going on. I can't possibly allow you to be by yourself every night."

"So what's your plan?"

"Well, first you'll be spending Christmas break at my place. Mum and dad are crazy to have you there. Then, after we finish Hogwarts, I'll move in with you. Or sleep over three times a week, if you don't want to get involved with my mess."

"What about your parents?" She asked, trying not to get her hopes up. Having James living with her would be her dream coming true.

"They agree you shouldn't be on your own. It's not safe out there. Especially for you." He said softly, caressing her cheeks tenderly. "Mum's all for you coming to live on our place. Merlin knows we have got enough spare rooms, and she's already picked yours." He said rolling his eyes. "Dad knows I'd rather go live with you. He's even asked where's your flat. It's all up to you, love. You can come live with us, or I can move to your flat. Either way, you’re stuck with me."

Lily eyed him, some tears on her eyes.

"I'd love to live with you, James."

He grinned that absurdly happy grin of his and Lily couldn't help but smile back, leaning forward to plant a kiss on his lips.

"We'll decide where to live later. As long as we're together, I'm fine with it." He told her, holding her face between his hands, and still posing that dazzling smile - dazzling not because of his good looks, but because it was amazing how a simple gesture could conceive this amount of happiness.

"We'll decide later. Probably in a better time than two in the morning..." she agreed. James chuckled.

"Only you can get away with waking me up at this time, woman!" He complained and she giggled. "But since we're here..." He said, slipping her robe out of her shoulder and kissing the now exposed skin, "and it is winter already..." James now shifted so there was enough space for her, raising his blanket for her.

She grinned, took off the rest of her robe off and her slippers, taking the place he offered while he put his spectacles back on the night stand. It was really easy and comforting to snuggle with James.

She felt safe - and felt better for knowing he was safe too. She smiled as he frowned trying to see her.

And, she figured as her lips found James's, she wouldn't really mind missing another hour of sleep.


	5. Day Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Five: celebrity/youtuber au, our fans ship us but we've never met but now I'm meeting you and wow youre attractive

Being a YouTuber wasn't as easy as her sister thought, Lily reflected.

Petunia always said that Lily's job wasn't a real job.

Lily had a major on graphic design, and started her YouTube channel still in College, as a graded work. After one video of her commenting on the Premier League while drunk went viral, she decided to keep the channel - she had fun with the videos.

She didn't drunk-comment football anymore - she did it while sober, with a weekly video every Monday. Of course it was not her only segment, but it was her most successful still.

The part that she loved most about it was having lots and lots of girls telling her how cool it was to have a woman talking about sports - so she moved to other sports too: Tennis, Rugby and Basketball.

But her favourite was still Football. She discovered she had a talent to point out some new players and preview their success.

"I don't know about you," she stated on one of her first post-viral video, "but I feel this James Potter bloke's gonna be big. You just mark my words."

Years later, when she finally found this specific video she sighed in relief. She was supposed to have finished the new vlog hours ago, but she just had to find this video.

She had to, because that "James Potter Bloke" had just won the Champions League for his team. And she had been one of the first to praise him on his very early days.

"Some of you will remember this video of mine," she started the new Monday video, then showed her talking about Potter. "Many, many of you told me to can it. Many more shoved it on my face when he fucked up the Premier League title and fell in disgrace not three years ago. Now I can say it: I told you he'd be big. He's won the Premier League and will be a strong competitor for the Ballon D'Or this year. So congratulations, Potter. And congratulations, me. Hope we have learnt the lesson to trust my precious sight."

She then showed the final, and moved on to tactical comments.

To her immense surprised, her video went viral - this time on the sports world. BBC shared it on Facebook, ESPN had shown it live on Sports Center, and football fans flooded her Twitter mentions.

Of course, some were offensive, as the internet usually tends to be. But then she noticed that "#PotterSeesEvans" was on the Trending Topics. Trembling, she clicked on it to see what on world was happening.

To her surprise, it was a recording of a Facebook Live made by James Potter, while he watched her vlog. "Well, I've got to thank Lily Evans for her trust since the beginning. I did fuc- I mean, I did mess up some years ago, and some people stopped believing me." He said, looking at the camera. He wore these round spectacles whenever he wasn't on the field. He had said on an interview that he hated contacts. Then he smirked "Very nice to know not only my parents, mates and manager thought I still had something to offer. Cheers, Evans! And nice channel, by the way."

She would've watched it again, to actually believe it had happened, when her phone rang.

"Hey, Marls!" She answered her best friend, a bit breathless.

" _Have you seen Potter's live?!_ "

"As a matter of fact, I've just seen it."

" _This is great! Your channel will gain so many followers!_ "

Lily agreed and kept talking about how this could change her channel and even career. But she still wanted to see what people were talking about. The hashtag wasn't the first on the Trending Topics anymore - "#Jily" had gained the spot.

"Marls, d'you know what 'Jily' means?" She asked on the phone.

" _Jily? Is this a shipping name?_ "

"I'm not sure... never seen it..." She clicked on it to check it out. Then she gasped "Bloody fuck Marlene, it's a shipping alright. Potter and I."

" _Say what?!_ "

Lily investigated a bit more and got the whole story: her fans had watched the Live and knowing that both her and James were single, decided they made a cute couple.

Even if they had never met, and probably never would.

And even if they did, she doubted he'd be interested in her.

"I'd like to thank everyone for the kind words my last video received," she closed her next vlog with the thanking’s, a bit nervous, "and for those who sent rude comments, fuck off. I'd never expected this amount of publicity over some vlog and I'm extremely thankful for it.

"To the newcomers, welcome! I hope you manage to stick around after the viral has stopped. To my old ones, thanks for sharing so much it reached ESPN. And... it also reached the player in question, who I admire very much and am very happy to know that he liked the vlog. Tho if you'd _really_ liked it, Potter, I guess you'd follow me on Twitter..."

The response was immediate. "#FollowHerPotter" became the number one Trend in a couple of hours, and not so surprisingly, one tweet and a follow caught her attention.

"@JFPotter06: I really do like it, @realtalkevans. Keep up the good job!"

Her vlog had worked!

"@realtalkevans: good to know, @JFPotter06. Will try to make up for the empty summer. Subscribe to see ;)"

Her fans had, obviously, gone crazy with her cheeky reply. But not more than her when she saw a new tweet from him:

"@JFPotter06: already did, miss @realtalkevans. Having fun with your old vids. Cheers!"

There wasn't much she could do about it, so she kept going as normal as she could. She decided to make a special on outside of Europe Football for her Monday videos, and received praise from the viewers.

Of course, she still kept up with her local world, watching the news and social media from clubs and players. And this is how she stumbled upon Potter's new Facebook Live, where he replied to fans questions.

"Hello, there!" He greeted, looking at the camera "As I'm terrible with tech stuff, my Manager Sirius Black will help me. Ok, what's the first question, Padfoot?"

"'How do you feel about having scoring a hat-trick on the Champions Final?', asked by Dylan Mark."

"Well, Dylan, how would you have felt?" James asked back, smirking. "It felt blissful, and it still does. Like everything I hoped for, trained my arse off for, had finally happened."

And it went on. Potter's charisma was really wonderful.

"This one is from Maya Robinson: 'in what country outside Europe would you like to play?'"

"Hm, Maya, I've been watching Lily Evans's videos on YouTube, and let me tell you... South America seems like a wonderful place!"

He said it so casually, so simply, that Lily could barely believe it. So he did watch her videos! She quickly tipped 'Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoyed it."

A laugh from Potter's manager got her attention back to the live.

"Michael Jones asks: 'so you're really with the YouTube chick?'. Very classy, Mike." Sirius Black said, holding another laugh.

"Well, Mike, and for anyone who's curious out there... I'm not dating Lily Evans from YouTube. I simply appreciate a good channel. Besides, Miss Evans and I have never even met, unfortunately. I'm actually seeing nobody at the moment, so don't believe the gossip!"

He said it all with a smile. His manager barked another laugh.

"Well, this one is from Lily Evans. She said 'Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoyed.' Did you enjoy it, Prongs?"

No one missed the glare James threw at his manager, but he faced the camera with a smile.

"Nice to know you're also watching, Lily. May I call you Lily? Your recent videos are truly amazing. Keep up the good job. And I did enjoy myself, thanks."

Lily couldn't believe it. He actually liked her videos!

She only half watched the rest of the live. She was actually euphoric with the attention she received.

And she giggled with the new hashtag: #MakeJilyMeet.

On the second Monday of July, she finished her video saying: "And I'm very happy to say that I managed to get some tickets for the Friendly held on Wembley tomorrow! I will also make a live, in which my good friend Marlene will film for me, and every penny I get for the video will be destined to the kids who suffered on the Syria war. See you all tomorrow!"

Marlene wasn't the best camera girl, but her fans didn't seem to mind that much. Lily wore an England jersey, to show her pride for her country on their homeland.

"I've already said it, but the Wembley is one of the best stadiums in the world - not to mention its size...!" She narrated as they made their way to their seats. Only they were occupied. She frowned. "That's never happened to me before. Probably they sat on the wrong places. Excuse me, sir, I believe you've got the wrong seats."

"Well, we certainly do, considering the players should be on the locker room..." James Potter said. Lily gasped and smiled.

"Uh, er... hullo?" She brilliantly replied. Potter and Black smirked. "What are you, erm, doing, y'know, _not_ on the locker room?"

"Well, I watched your video yesterday, and I was very touched by your gesture of donating your profits from this video, so I decided to help." Potter replied, looking at her. She held his gaze.

"How so?"

"Well, firstly I'll also donate my profit from all of this summer's Friendlies. And also, I'll make this video special. I talked to some people, and you'll be allowed on the Locker Room to show the pre-game atmosphere. Let's go?"

Lily raised her eyebrows in surprise. Potter held a credential, waiting for her to take it or let him put it on her.

She allowed him.

"Thank you so much, Potter. This is amazing, for real." She said, as the four made their way to the locker room.

"It's really ok. And please, call me James."

Lily grinned. She couldn't believe her luck. To get to meet some of her favourite players, some of which who swore to help on her donation. When the video was close to end, she called James back.

"So really, thanks for making this happen! Not only the video will get more than the amount I originally considered, I also got to meet some of my favourite players. Fans, you should leave some nice 'thanks' to James Potter. And may the Queen bless him on the World Cup."

He laughed and shook his head.

"It was great having you both here. I'll talk more about my new friendlies tomorrow morning on a live. Be sure to watch."

Marlene turned off the camera, but Lily's smile didn't go away, not even when James took her back to the stands.

"Honestly, James, this was amazing. I cannot thank you enough." She said. He grinned.

"It was my pleasure."

She looked up to him and noticed something she somehow managed to miss before - he was truly handsome. This probably was the reason he had so many fangirls.

"Mine too. I'll talk to you about the donations details?" She said, but the final made it look like a question.

"After the game?" He suggested casually.

"Hm, sure." She replied blushing. He grinned again.

"Wait for me on the coffee shop on the corner. Easier to run from the press. See you, Evans."

 

* * *

 

"I'd like to announce that I've scheduled another 3 friendly matches this summer, and all the money will be destined to the kids from the Syrian war." James said on his live. Sirius had shown him how to set it up, as he wouldn't be at James's house on the moment.

"I'd also like to-"

But whatever he'd like to do was interrupted by a red haired girl who dressed only his jersey coming on the video and asking, "James, have you seen my-"

He turned as quickly as soon as he heard Lily's voice, but it wasn't fast enough. The damage was done. Her face was a mask of shock.

"Well," he said, with a grin, "come over, Lils."

"This is a live?" She asked.

"Yep." He replied as she sat on the sofa next to him.

"Well... surprise?" She offered lamely. James laughed at her comment, and she grinned a bit.

"This is a bit awkward, but we hope you can respect our privacy and keep from asking questions about this." James asked smiling. Lily snorted.

"What privacy? I'm in your jersey, for God's sake..." She mumbled. James tried not to laugh.

"What's left of it, at least." He eyed her thighs. "Thanks God you're small and my jersey covers you, just imagine if you were 5cm taller."

"James, the live's still on!" Lily hissed. He flinched.

"Oh shit!" James ran for the camera and blocked it with his hand. "How do I turn this off?!"

"Jesus, James, it's not that hard-"


	6. Day Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Six: Sirius's POV, I found James and Lily asleep in James's bed, time for mischief

Sirius Black was a good friend. Honestly, he was. He had his flaws, alright (and they were multiple), but he was a bloody good friend.

He was loyal to death – to the point of taking his friends' fights and feuds to himself. He helped Peter with homework, as his chubby mate didn't always manage to do it by himself. He even became an illegal animagus in order to make Remus's transformations easier.

And, the decisive proof of him being a bloody good friend, was that he _always_ listened when James went on and on and on about Lily Evans.

His adopted brother was in love with Evans for far too long – and was far too idiot about it. Sirius always tried to stop James from making a fool of himself, but James never accepted the help he so absurdly needed.

So Sirius stopped trying to savage James's pride, and resigned to listening to (and occasionally laughing at) his friend.

"You'll just see, Padfoot," James had told him once in Fifth Year, "one day I'll marry this girl..."

The next year ended with James saying that he would get over Lily.

"I'm done suffering, Pads." He'd said "My heart and my pride can't take it anymore."

Sirius had promptly snorted and laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. As if you've still got any pride left." He replied.

"You talk like I've humiliated myself beyond repair, mate" James argued back. Sirius laughed again. There was no more humiliation James could go through for Lily. "You just see. From this day on, Lily Evans will be a simple acquaintance of mine."

It was exactly this conversation of only two months ago that immediately crossed Sirius's mind the moment James received the Head Boy badge with his Hogwarts letter, which also told him that his 'acquaintance Lily Evans' would be his partner.

"I don't really know why you're so smug, Padfoot." James said as the four boys made their way to an empty compartment.

"I'm not smug, Prongs," Which was a blatant lie, as Sirius's smirk could show, "I'm just really looking forward to see you working with your acquaintance Lily Evans."

Remus and Peter snickered, but James simply rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, you think I'm still-"

But what exactly James thought Sirius thought of him didn't matter, as coming their way was the red-haired girl in question.

James fixed his already fixed spectacles, ran a hand through his hair and grinned, waving.

"Alright, Evans?" He greeted. Lily smiled back.

"Everything's fine with me, Potter. You?"

"Just dandy."

"See you in 10 for a pre-meeting meeting?" She asked, smiling. James nodded.

"See you in 10."

Lily nodded back, hugged Remus and continued towards the front of the train. Sirius chuckled as he noticed James watching Lily walking away. James blushed slightly.

"We're just partners, Padfoot."

"I thought you were acquaintances." Remus interfered.

"We were. We are. But we're starting a partnership as of today, so..."

"So you stare at her arse as she leaves?" Sirius finished. Remus and Peter laughed again.

"Shut it, Padfoot. I'm going or I might be late."

It wasn't that Sirius actually wanted James to be with Lily. He didn't know the girl. He just wanted his mate to be happy.

However, the amount of Head work thrown at Lily and James was so overwhelming that it was easier to see the pair together than apart.

Which meant Lily started to spend time with the Marauders too, as her very best friend had just finished Hogwarts.

And then Sirius noticed what Remus had always said: Lily would actually be good for James. She reigned him in. Her wit was the only thing that made him not have the last word on every damn thing. She made him actually care about school. She was a major factor on him not hexing innocent people anymore.

Sirius watched as Lily felt more and more comfortable around James. At first, she always kept 30cm of distance between them. A month later and they only worked shoulder to shoulder. In mid-October, she greeted James by getting on her toes and running a hand through his hair. November came and with it brought such a familiarity between the Head students that it was not rare to see them holding hands or laying their heads on one another on the Common Room sofa.

"So how's your partner Lily Evans, huh?" Sirius asked one night, when the four of them were in the dorm, ready to sleep. James stopped reading his book, but didn't face his friend. Remus and Peter quickly sat up.

"She's fine. Why?" James replied.

"Well, it's just you got here at 1 in the morning after last night's rounds." Sirius explained. "Since you're just partners, I imagined something happened that required our beloved and respected Head students to stay on the Common Room for a couple hours. With chocolate."

James glanced quickly at Sirius and composed his face before turning away.

"We're friends, Padfoot. No one can spend such an absurd amount of time together without becoming friends." James replied quietly.

"Friends who hold hands?" Peter piped in. James shrugged.

"Lily's very affective. She likes to touch people. Moony knows that."

"Actually, we never hold hands, Prongs." Remus replied.

"Well... we're just friends. I don't know what else to say." James said, closing his book, positioning his spectacles on the night stand, and closing the drapes around his bed.

The next morning Sirius took extreme care to be the first person to reach Lily by waking up one hour before he usually did.

"Oh, hey, Sirius. Good morning!" She greeted him as she made her way from the girls dorm. "Didn't know you were capable of waking up before 7am."

"Only for special occasions, Evans" He replied grinning.

"Chasing a bird?" She asked back, while they exited the portrait hole.

"I've actually been wanting to talk to you, Red."

"So you're chasing me, then?" Lily asked cheekily, reminding Sirius that he actually liked the girl.

"Well, even if I were... I don't think I'm actually your type." He answered slowly. She rolled her eyes but smiled.

"What's my type, Mr. Black?" She asked jokingly.

"Maybe tall, lanky, bespectacled gits with a black, messy hair?" He threw at her, looking carefully at her reaction.

Lily stumbled and gaped slightly. Sirius smirked.

"That's very precise," She replied instead.

"I'm a very good guesser."

They stayed quiet for a couple of minutes.

"That's what you wanted to talk to me about?" She asked.

"It was more like ask, to be honest."

"Ask then."

They stopped facing each other.

"What's up with you and Prongs?"

"We're friends." She replied shrugging.

"How much friends are you?" He inquired, narrowing his eyes. Lily sighed.

"What's it to you? Afraid of me stealing him away?"

"You see, Evans, I'm very protective of James, for more that he hates it. But he's very stubborn and he's keeping mum. So I've come to you."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Well, I just wanted to know what's going on between the two of you."

"We're just friends, Sirius."

Before Sirius could inquire her any further, he interrupted.

"Padfoot, Lils. Everything's alright?" James asked, eyeing his friend suspiciously. Sirius simply grinned, throwing his arm over her shoulders.

"Absolutely brilliant, Prongs. How about you?" Sirius replied.

"Wondering why you got up so early."

"I heard it's healthy. Decided to try it. Not really a fan, even if it means I get to enjoy such a brill company." James glared at Sirius's answer. "Ran into Evans and we started to chat. Jealous?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.

"Why would I be jealous, Padfoot?" James gritted through his teeth.

"Jealous of me finding a new friend, of course!"

James glared at Sirius then glanced at Lily.

"He's bothering you?" James asked to the girl. She grinned.

"I'm used to being in the company of a black haired git, Potter." Was her answer. James smiled back.

"This one you can tell to bugger off."

"Will he actually listen to me? Cause the last one I told to leave off didn't do it. Neither the first time nor the following hundreds..."

James grinned more. Lily glared at Sirius, who winked, and got free from him to stand next to James.

"Well, I can see that I'm not wanted here," Sirius announced when James bumped her nose with his index finger, "so I'll just leave you be. Must be off to the kitchens, where my presence will be welcomed."

Now, on the beginning of this tale, I've told you Sirius Black was a bloody good friend. However, even if he was a bloody good friend, he also was a Marauder, and his friends didn't escape.

So when Sirius Black, coming back from a late night stroll filled with some fags and Firewhiskey (only a week after his chat with the Head Girl), arrived at his dorm and found James on his bed, snuggling with Lily, his hazy, slightly drunk mind was having a debate between being a good friend and managing mischief.

He slept late that night with a smirk on his face.

He woke early that morning again (the hangover potion was amazing), poking both Remus and Peter to show James's bed. The three of them snickered and left for breakfast.

They decided they should not leave the table until the Head Students arrived.

"What the bloody fuck have you done, Padfoot?!"

Sirius, Remus and Peter laughed. James's voice was absolutely furious and he held a wrinkled paper on his closed fist.

"I've got no idea what you're talking about." Sirius replied nonchalantly. James glared and flattened the paper on his hand, shoving it in Sirius's face.

"What's this, then?"

Sirius couldn't maintain his façade anymore; he laughed. It was a picture of James and Lily snuggling on James's bed, in which Sirius had added 'How to work on a partnership using your heads'.

"So do you snuggle with all of your friends but me?" Sirius asked instead. James, who already was angry, became even redder. His explosion was contained by the appearance of Lily.

"I'd certainly hope he doesn't, considering the amount of girls he accounts as friends..." She replied, lightly touching his arm. Sirius smirked. "C'mon, Potter, I told you it was no big deal. Cat's out of the bag, that's all."

"But what if the professors see this?" James asked her. "I don't want you to get in trouble..." He added, taking her hand in his.

"Oh, rubbish. First, it's not like they can prove I slept on your bed. It's just a picture. Second, the words are merely suggestive, thanks, Sirius."

"No problemo."

"Third, for all I know, girls are allowed on boy's dorms. The contrary is forbidden. And lastly, if I did get in trouble, it'd be worth it." She finished, winking at him. James's smile couldn't be bigger. "So just sit down, eat and be thankful at least your good angle is in the photo, unlike me."

James chuckled and pecked her lips lightly, joining his friends on the table. Sirius looked at James and Lily and smirked:

"So we're now kissing our friends or...?"


	7. Day Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Seven: we have to work on a project during the summer so you come to my house and my parents love you and insist you stay for dinner

"So this boy is coming over tonight?" Mr. Evans asked, frowning. Lily sighed and took more waffles.

"This afternoon, actually." She corrected her father.

They ate in silence for a while.

"What time?"

"Around 4. Not sure he'll be here on time, though. He's not that punctual." Her father snorted at her remark.

"I'm not really fond of the idea of you being alone with this boy..." He murmured. Lily rolled her eyes.

"You get home at six, dad. Besides, Tuney will be here the whole time. You have nothing to worry about."

But her father always worried about his two girls. Even more after Lily's mother had passed away. He was concerned about those who would, as he always said, "steal his flowers away".

"There's food on the storeroom for lunch. We'll order pizza for dinner?" Mr. Evans suggested, getting up.

"Hell yeah. Make Tuney sweat a bit." She agreed with a chuckle.

"Lily..." He said in a warning tone.

"Yeah, yeah. Just go to work, ok?"

Mr. Evans did as his daughter told him, kissing her forehead.

Lily sighed. Her father being so worried about her working on that Transfigurations summer assignment with Potter was almost funny. Were it to happen on the previous summer, she'd be fuming.

Was the boy a pain in the arse!

Trying to forget the task ahead, she decided to tidy her room as she was supposed to have done weeks ago. It took longer than she expected, as she stopped frequently to reminiscence over apparently random objects.

Like that obnoxious pink hat she had had to wear for two weeks after she lost a bet to Sirius Black on fourth year - she learnt not to bet with any of the Marauders ever again.

Or that ridiculous stuffed cat Potter had given her on fifth year to gain her affections; she'd said it was rubbish, but had secretly loved it.

If she kept a souvenir for every occasion Potter had asked her out, she'd have to find a backpack at the very least. The boy had a mild obsession for her since third year - which she conveniently had forgotten to mention to her father. If he was worried about him being there just for being a boy, imagine what he would do if he knew Potter had tried to sneak into the girls dorms.

Lily giggled when she remembered Minerva chewing the boy's ears off. 'Trying to get a peak on Evans's panties' had never been so funny to her before.

"What's this about you bringing a boy over, freak?" Petunia asked, barging into Lily's room. The red head sighed.

"I've got an assignment and he's my partner."

"It had to be today? My friends are coming over!" Petunia whined.

"Don't worry, Tuney, we'll be out of your sight."

"You'd better. We're having a girls afternoon, watching movies and such."

"Wait, I need the office!" Lily exclaimed. Their TV was located on the house office, an artifice Mr. Evans had used to spend time with Petunia.

"Too bad. Guess you're gonna have to use the living room."

"Petunia, you know I can't. We'll be using magic, magical objects. If your friends are coming over, we can't be seen."

"Good thing you've got a room for yourself, then." Petunia said with a fake smile, gesturing around. Lily glared at her.

"You know dad won't like this."

"See if I care. We're already on the office having lunch. Don't bother us."

Her father would be absolutely furious to find she and Potter locked on her bedroom. She called him, but couldn't reach his office.

She could hear Petunia and her friends cackling away about Vernon as she went down to have lunch. Lily rolled her eyes and continued her way towards the kitchen.

She had always loved to cook. Not only following the recipes, but also modifying them, and creating new ones. It explained why she was so fond (and so good) in Potions.

She relaxed slightly while she prepared her lunch. When she was finished, she magically washed the dishes and ran to her bedroom.

Lily set out her Transfigurations book and cleared her desk, then she duplicated the only chair and started reading ahead of the assignment.

Suddenly she heard the doorbell ringing. Frowning, she checked her watch. 4 o'clock, exactly. This couldn't possibly be Potter!

However, she decided she should answer the door anyway, not trusting Petunia to have heard the bell.

"Hm, hello, I'm James Potter. Er, does Lily live here?" She heard a voice ask as she neared the doorway. With wide eyes, she ran to the door.

There, Lily found James on the doorway, with Petunia crossing her arms.

"I'm here, Tuney. You can go back." Lily said, smiling. Petunia narrowed her eyes at James again, snorted and went back to her friends. Lily sighed, and turned to James.

“Hullo, there, Evans!” He greeted, grinning, “Your sister’s rather lovely.” Lily snorted at his remark.

“Yeah, well. Welcome. Come in, now.” She said, closing the door as he stepped inside. “How you got here anyway?” She asked, leading the way to her bedroom.

“I got a lift.” James replied, an unexplained smirk on his face.

“It was something illegal, wasn’t it?” She asked. James laughed in response.

“Not at the moment, no. But it has the potential, so let’s hope, yeah?” He replied cheekily. Lily shook her head and smiled a very tiny smile. They arrived at her door, and she hesitated while he smirked. “Already taking me to your room, Evans? Won’t you even buy me dinner first?”

“Shut up, you ponce. My sister’s got her friends on the house, and we’ll use our books, quills and wands. So we need to be isolated.”

“Yeah, sure. That’s what we’ll tell people. Don’t worry,” he replied winking as she rolled her eyes and opened her door. “I feel so cheap,” he continued.

“Like you’d really feel sad if a girl brought you to her room before a date.”

“Maybe. Depends on the bird doing it…” he pondered, looking around while she closed the door. Then he smirked. “Why am I not surprised to see how many books you own?”

“Probably due to the fact I’ve never hidden my passion for reading,” Lily replied, crossing her arms, “and I highly doubt you don’t have at least ten times more than me on that manor of yours.”

“Spying on me, have you, Evans?” Was his cheekily reply.

“Of course not.”

“Then how do you know I live in a manor?” He challenged her. Lily blushed slightly.

“Well, there’s this… potions magazine I subscribe and they did an article on your father in which he mentioned that he works on his potions at home, and there was this pic…”

“You subscribe to that rubbish?” James asked in disbelief.

“Well, in case you don’t know, it’s very informative. They always show new potions and announce internships and such. Some people need these opportunities.” She bit back. James rolled his eyes.

“You _want_ a potions internship?”

“Should the chance present itself, I’d love to, obviously. Even better if it’s during summer. You’ve seen my sister. I don’t really like spending my days with her.”

“Luckily for you, I know a place where you could do an internship.” He replied, shrugging, “not that I’d advise you to do any work on summer, because that’s just depressing, but you could come to my place and dad would be thrilled to have someone who actually likes potions around.”

Lily narrowed her eyes and gestured him to sit down, doing the same herself.

“Doesn’t really sound like an internship to me.”

“Well…” he hesitated, “after he tried it once and the boy almost set the house to flames, he stopped trusting youngsters near his cauldrons. Nothing personal, we just like having a roof over our heads,” he explained with a smirk, “but with the right recommendation, I’m sure he’d accept to try with you.”

Lily went speechless for a few seconds. She really did want the internship, but she didn’t know if she could trust James’s offer. Moreover, she didn’t know why he was offering it in first place.

“Look, I know you’re probably wondering why I’m doing this, and it’s simple: I know you’re brilliant with potions, and I think you deserve a shot, and my dad’s pretty brill too, so it could work. As I said, he isn’t fond of internships, but if you’d come over informally and get to talk to him, I’m sure he’d be open to it, if I asked him to. Of course, if you don’t mind it never went to your school history or something, you could come over all the time and he’d be happy to discuss, no strings attached.”

Lily still couldn’t utter a single word.

“Just think about it, yeah? You love potions, and you’re pretty terrific at it.”

“Thank you, James. That’s extremely nice of you.”

“No problem, Evans,” he replied grinning, “however, I believe I’m the specialist in Transfiguration around here, so get your wand and prepare to be stunned.” He said, wiggling his eyebrows. Lily snorted.

“That was probably the worst pun ever! Stunning is Charms, not Transfiguration, you dimwit!”

They bickered a bit more regarding the worst puns (they agreed Sirius deserved the place of worst pun-maker) before actually getting to work.

In some ways, the afternoon surprised Lily. Although she knew James had substantially matured, she hadn’t expected him to be so proactive on their project. Before, she had foreseen much work for her with some help from him. But the boy really was a genius in Transfiguration, and he actually liked the subject, not shy of showing just how excited he was for transfiguring her chair into a kitten.

“And you can see that its fur is the same colour the chair was, which happens all the time with animal transfiguration from inanimate objects,” he told her, showing the dark brown that filled the kitten, “however, if you go from animals to objects, the same doesn’t apply. That’s because animals are very complex, even more mammals. So if you take a complex thing to change into something less complex, you can picture the object perfectly. But going from simple to complex requires more magic and more ability, so most of people can’t choose things like colours.”

Lily nodded along; she remembered McGonagall saying something like that.

“We can see that by the perfect animals McGonagall does in class…” Lily said, petting the kitten and smiling.

“Yup. It’s not the same with Animagi, tho,” James explained, “Animagi are part of someone. They ought to get something from them. It’s not a sign of less ability.” He saw Lily kissing softly the kitten’s head and laughed. “You like kittens?”

“Who doesn’t, really?” She replied instead, smiling.

“Why don’t you keep it then?”

“Oh, I can’t. I have allergy to cat and dog fur.”

James smirked and looked around.

“You seem to have lots of stuffed animals…” he noted, then his gaze closed on a particular one. The stuffed cat. He looked back at Lily, who blushed when she realized what he was staring at, “You kept it?” He asked, his voice showing clear disbelief.

“Well, it _was_ a gift, wasn’t it?” She said, setting the kitten on the floor.

“You said you had hated it.” He accused, crossing his arm.

“I know I did. You had to take a low blow on your ego, so it was needed. But really, it’s cute.”

James laughed.

“You’re insane, you know that?” He said.

They laughed and after James turned the cat back, sat down again and restarted working.

“Well, we just have to add some final touches and we’re done.” James said, when Lily finished writing the last phrase.

“Yeah, but we’d have to search more…” She said, “there’re some gaps that could be better.”

“I’ve got some more books back home. I could finish it, if you’d like,” he offered, “or I could bring them and we finish together, or you could come over and we could look into it… It’d be a good excuse for you to meet my dad…”

“When you put it this way, how could I refuse?” Lily joked. He winked and took the parchment from her hand.

“Then I’ll take this with me, so you won’t be tempted to finish without me…” He joked. Lily rolled her eyes.

“Well, out of the two of us, I think you’d be more likely to get ahead on this particular job, huh?” She challenged raising an eyebrow.

“Guilty.” He admitted, raising his hand and smiling. Lily looked at her watch.

“Come on, help me clean this up so we can go down before my dad gets home. He’d probably have a stroke if he saw us locked up in here.” Lily said, putting her books back in place.

“Really? Why’s that?” James asked, crossing his arm and supporting his weight on the table.

“Because he’s overprotective and the idea of me in my room with a boy, particularly one like you, is terrifying to him.”

“What do you mean, a boy like me?” He asked, smirking. Lily blushed and turned to James in his leather jacket and wearing that conceited smile over his ridiculously handsome face.

“You know… you…” She replied gesturing in his general direction. He approached her.

“I really don’t understand what you’re saying, Lils…” He whispered when he got closer.

“You know what I mean…” She replied, setting the book on the shelf. He grinned.

“You mean a handsome boy?”

“Uh, sure. And with that leather jacket. Makes you look like danger.” She replied, backing away from James who still came in her direction.

“He’s not fond of it?”

“Not even a little.”

“What about you?” He asked, his face a palm above hers. “Do you like it?”

“It’s pretty bad-boyish.” She replied, staring back at him. “Dad’d absolutely hate seeing a boy like this in here.”

“I think he’d hate even more if he only knew what this boy in particular thought about his daughters for half of the time he was here.”

“Oh? And wouldn’t I hate it?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not if I do it right…”

Then, slowly, very slowly, he took her face in his hand, and even slower, bent down, giving her enough chance to pull him away.

Lily, however, rolled her eyes and pushed herself up, clashing her lips against his and holding on his jacket.

She _really_ liked the bad-boyish leather jacket.

Quickly her father slipped away from her mind when James pushed her against the tall bookshelf, getting closer to her and tangling one hand on his hair.

Soon (sooner than any of them hoped for), an alarm clock went on.

“Bloody hell, someone’s coming!” She exclaimed, getting away from James. He smirked.

“Should I hide?” He asked. Lily rolled her eyes.

“No, you ponce, grab a book and pretend to be working!” She exclaimed, sitting on the table and grabbing a quill and a spare parchment. “And that’s why we should never forget about twisting the wand right when we-” The door opened, revealing Mr. Evans. James held back a snort. “Oh, hey dad!” Lily greeted. “Come in and close the door, Petunia’s friends are here!” She whispered. Her father did as she told, eyeing both of them suspiciously.

“What are you doing here, alone?” Mr. Evans asked.

“I told you, Dad,” Lily explained, “Petunia’s friends came over, and we’re doing magic. We had to come up here.”

“I told you your father wouldn’t be happy with this, Lily…” James said, shaking his head. He got up, and made his way to Evans Senior, “Mr. Evans, I’m terribly sorry. My name’s James Potter, and I really hated that we had to do this. I would’ve suggested going to a Diagon Alley, but it’s not very good to be walking around in a group of only two nowadays, so I thought it’d be safer to do it here…”

“Why didn’t you go to your house, then?” Mr. Evans asked.

“Because my parents are travelling, sir, so the problem would be even worse… At least Petunia was here.”

Mr. Evans looked from James’s hair to his leather jacket, then smiled.

“Yeah, you were right, James. So, have you kids finished yet?”

“Hum, no, actually,” Lily replied, “we’re gonna have to go over to James’s, cause he’s got some books we’re gonna probably need.”

“As soon as my parents get back home!” James added. Mr. Evans smiled again.

“That’s the spirit. So you guys want some pizza?”

 

* * *

 

 

“Oh, hello, James!” Mr. Evans greeted the boy when he entered the house. “Everything alright?”

“Yes, sir. You?”

“Just fine. You sure you don’t want to stay for lunch?”

“No, Dad, we’re eating at James’s place.” Lily replied, appearing on the kitchen and winking at the boy when her father wasn’t looking.

“So your folks are back in town?” Mr. Evans asked, trying to hide his concern.

“Just today, sir.”

“Well, then off with you.”

James offered his arm to Lily and they apparated at the manor she had seen on the article.

“It’s beautiful, James!” Lily exclaimed.

“Yeah, mum loves to decorate.” He explained, taking her hand and guiding her around.

“Where’re your parents? I’d love to meet them.”

“They’re in town. They’re just not home for another couple hours.” James replied, smirking. Lily grinned.

“Now, that’s rather bad-boyish, of you, mister. Lying to my father just to get me home alone?” She said, pushing him by his jacket.

“Guilty of all charges.” He replied, closing the gap.

And really, she couldn’t resist the leather jacket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of this long week of Jily! Thank you all for reading, leaving kudos and comments! They made my day so many times! Hope you enjoyed and see you all!


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